Throwdown Thursday - En Fuego!!

In this weeks Throwdown Thursday, we are calling a semi-audible from how it usually runs. Instead of limiting your choices to two options, we wanted to open this up a bit and pose the question, what would be your ideal Saturday morning SC tandem (either past/present)? I for one lean towards Dan Patrick & Steve Levy but that's just me. 

Thoughts???

The life of a sports fan in the Southeast vs. a sports fan in the Northeast

With a slow week in sports leading up to the Final Four I decided to take a step away from the normal sports chatter and give some detail around my own experiences as a NY sports guy living in the south. 

Are the regions different when it comes to what sports they root for?  Hell yes.  Growing up in the Northeast it was Professional Sports and toss in some college bball.  Down here it is the complete opposite.  Again, not saying one is better than the other, just purely stating the facts here. Saturdays in the fall usually consisted of hanging with friends or playing sports but it rarely consisted of watching college football.  A huge part of that is because college football just isn't that good in the Northeast. The second part is that there just aren't enough teams to root for.  Down here in the south, Saturdays in the fall are looked at like playoff games.  SEC Football reigns supreme and all year round we've got talk shows dedicated to UGA football and how we can’t wait until the spring game next week to see what young guys will step up.  I must say, I've found myself getting more and more into college football down here. Games are a ton of fun to go to and it’s absolutely treated like a religion to the folks here. 

Here’s the major break down:

Northeast

Love for all Professional Sports (minus MLS) with a heavy focus on NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB.  Possibly in that order.  Huge interest in college bball.

Little to no interest in College football, College baseball, Golf, and Tennis.

Southeast

Love for all College Athletics with a heavy focus on Football and baseball.  Light on the bball.

Professional Sports - MLB (Most popular sport in southeast in large part because of the Atlanta Braves.) NFL – Some interest and little interest in NBA.  Absolutely no interest in NHL.

Golf and Tennis are huge.

Both Regions

Both share equal interest in NASCAR and UFC believe it or not.  NASCAR is much more popular then I would have ever thought among both parties and I still cant personally understand why.

Final Thoughts – Of course a lot of this makes sense when you think of the climate in both regions.  Golf, baseball, and tennis are played outdoors and you can do that more down here but the difference in love for Professional Sports vs. College always had me in awe.  When you think about state schools up north you don’t have many power house athletic programs.  Down here, everyone went to Auburn, Bama, FSU, Florida, and UGA…all of which are state schools. 

In closing I don’t know if I would say one is better than the other.  My interest in Professional sports will always be strong.  I will say that I have gotten into Golf and college football way more since being down here…tennis, not so much.

The Final Four is set...Thanks to These Guys

So we have the Final Four set for next weekend! Another great March Madness coming to an end, this one particularly entertaining especially the Elite Eight games. All of them coming down to the final minutes which left all of us on the edge of our seats clinging to our brackets. Thanks to these four MVP's, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Michigan State and Duke are all dancin' in Indy.

Wisconsin- Sam Dekker.
This kid was in a zone you really only see on NBA 2K! He was knocking down moon shots from all over. Step backs to contested 3's he carried the Badgers in the second half to victory. 5-6 from deep and 27 points, the 6'9" swing man really made a name for himself and showed that Kentucky might have its hands full on Saturday.

Kentucky- Karl(Winslow)-Anthony Towns.
He was a beast in the post all game for the Cats. ND decided not to double him and he made them pay. He didn't miss a shot in the second half and every time Kentucky needed a bucket, the fed the big man. He had ONE point against West Virginia so I guess he was letting everyone(especially Wisconsin) know that he is going to be a problem on Saturday.

Michigan State- Their second-half defense.
Watching this game, especially in the second half, I was amazed every time I looked at the score Louisville was still winning. The Cards scored 3 buckets in the first 16 minutes of the second half, all on breakaway steals that led to layups. Other than that and 9 points at the line, The Spartan defense was LOCK DOWN! They forced Louisville into continuous bad shots and didn't give up second chance opportunities. They don't have 1 supreme defender, as a team, they are a supreme defense that moves on a string. Duke better watch out, Izzo has a knack for big-game victories

Duke- Matt Jones
Sometimes, you need a role player or an "unknown" to step up and that is exactly what Jones did. Knocking down 4 big triples, he helped Duke advance to its 12th Final Four. With Okafor, (Carl) Winslow and now Jones all playing great, the MSU defense better come to play again, otherwise Coach K will be dancing all the way to Monday night!